September 23, 2004
Music recommendation: Isis, Panopticon
Isis, the purveyors of methodical, elaborately constructed doom metal fronted by Aaron Turner (of Hydra Head records fame), lies near the opposite end of the musical spectrum from my last recommendation. Panopticon, their third full-length album and second on Ipecac Records, arrives in stores approximately one month from now. It is epic in scope (seven songs stretch to sixty minutes), and paradoxically can be described as disciplined (in its deliberately leaden tempo) and exploratory; it contains waterfalls of guitar pressed together so tightly as to seem impenetrable and delicately melodic interludes that are beautiful without being "pretty." What marks this album as an improvement over Oceanic, an admittedly spectacular record released two years ago, is the presence of those melodic passages hidden underneath the noise. Take "Wills Dissolve," the fourth track, as a key to the record. The first three minutes feature guitars and bass playing a melody that can be considered one step above funereal dirge (not unlike "Swimming in the Lake of Bile," from Canadian metal band Acrid's underappreciated 1997 album Eighty-Sixed); during the final four minutes that same melody is drenched in noise yet appreciably not abandoned. It is plodding, intricate, and mesmeric.
Something Chris Ott wrote in his Pitchfork review of Oceanic is true yet again of Panopticon: "Oceanic is an album that's at once more precise and more exploratory than the predecessor it upstages. Each song is an anthem on par with the three finest on Celestial...but their song remains the same: a huge chorus, and many lengthy breakdowns. Where Oceanic succeeds is in its ability to hold your ear during those lulls." Panopticon is the type of album that forces me to keep one foot in the metal and hardcore scenes while I explore further (and much quieter) realms of music elsewhere.